Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Arachne the Weaver

In Greek mythology, there was a mortal woman named Arachne who was so arrogant about her weaving skills, which were great, that she challenged Athena, goddess of knowledge and weaving, among other things, to a contest to see who was the better weaver. 

When the contest was finished, Arachne had woven a tapestry so beautiful that Athena, tore it to pieces and turned Arachne into a spider, doomed for all time to weave webs to catch her dinner.  In Greek, "arachne" means spider.   What a lovely story, which explains why the spider weaves so beautiful a web.  The Greeks seemed to have a great answer for everything.

Basement Spider
This arachnid pictured here I found in my den near the basement steps, just lying there all spread out and looking enormous.  Spiders, like snakes, for a lot of people, effect a kind of excited fear when they first see them.  Neither my wife, Zelma, nor I have ever been particularly afraid of spiders, but my son, Robert, I am sure is an arachnophobe.  So it must be nature over nurture.

This spider at first glance, seemed to be around about eight inches across.  But in reality it is about four inches from the tip of one leg across to the opposite one.  I have formula for determining the size of spiders, snakes, and fish when someone is telling about having seen, killed, or caught one - divide by two.  This particular one is a basement spider, and I have seen quite a few in my basement.  Apparently she one was of the adventurous kind who just had to know what was upstairs. 

Spiders are beautiful things and they are astounding in their ability to survive.  They are found all the way from the tropics to warmer climes north (and south) to very cold areas.  Some have actually been found on freezing mountain tops in snow.
              
I never kill spiders because they never bother me and I think they do a lot of good: they have to eat, and what they eat probably makes my life a little better.  They usually just lie there flat against the wall looking impressive.  Of course, there are cobwebs.  (interestingly "cob" meant spider in Old English).  But I believe other spiders made them. This one can jump, I learned when I lifted it off the carpet with an envelope.  It seems the basement spiders are the lie-in-wait-and-pounce kind of arachnids. I admire their patience.

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